LFR Downshadow

What lies beneath...

With the death of Guildmaster Kalander Hornhand, the Solemn Order of Recognized Furriers and Woolmen is now run by Daundratha Hornhand (his wife), and a funeral is scheduled for Kalander at the guild tomb in the City of the Dead. Unfortunately, preparations for the funeral revealed undead in the tomb, and the new Guildmaster needs the tomb purged so that the ceremony can take place.

::OOC:: We did not finish up this adventure, but I am going to just finish it in story here.

The party approached the crypt and noticed heavy foot traffic outside of the gate from several days earlier, clearly someone or something had been here before the guild came yesterday. It quickly becomes obvious that the crypt has been desecrated. Graffiti litters the wall and undead roam the halls. After entering the second room it is more than clear that outside forces have been brought in. The undead have been bolstered with ranks of the mutated beggars from Tieden Prises’ lab.

Entering what appears to the last room, the adventures begin to make short work of the 3 skeleton warriors only to discover that the northern wall is actually just an allusion. The other side of the illusionary wall reveals a grotesque scene. A large stone has been used as a makeshift altar for some dark deity, as the corpse of a ewe lies sprawled across it. The corpse has been skinned, and fresh blood, apparently only minutes old, is evident.
The sheep is headless, but her head is not hard to find. A few feet from the stone lies a male halfling, neatly decapitated, with a note pinned to his chest. The ewe’s head has replaced the halfling’s, neatly grown together at the spine. The halfling’s own head lies haphazardly discarded in the corner, the bloody sheepskin stuffed into its mouth. The wool is still attached.
After recovering from the horrific scene, more undead appear from behind the large stone pillars. 2 flameskulls fly towards Sand Scale while a pair of skeleton tomb guardians rush Terios. The three headed skull lord remains back on the altar and sends a necrotic bolt at Griff.

After all the dust settles and bones fall, the grotesquely misplaced ewe’s head suddenly begins to speak, a haughty, amused voice magically projecting from the sheep’s mouth. “Hello, I’m Vogu Sarwin. It is a shame I had to die, but I couldn’t be allowed to ruin this surprise, could I? I had to open the door with my key; otherwise my suffering was completely unnecessary, as was my trip from Purskul. Kind of like my killer’s suffering: avoidable.”
The voice chuckles, and continues, becoming quieter. “What I had was little, and it was taken away. What you had was much, and you and others took from me. I hope your ceremony is ruined, and that the sycophants in attendance have had their appetites ruined as well. As for me, my work is not yet done.”

The following is a list of things discovered in the tomb that you reported back to the guildmaster.

Based on the older footprints beneath the recent ones outside the mausoleum, some of the undead were brought to the tomb.

The necromancer who did this entered the tomb by abducting a guild member, Vogu Sarwin, and forcing him to use his key.

The death of Vogu Sarwin was recent, but as the body had a preservative ritual placed on it, the details of death are impossible to tell.

Marks on the outside of the coffins indicate they were opened from the outside.

Some undead were brought to the tomb by a necromancer.

The undead may have originally come from a cemetery in Purskul.

Whoever caused this crime blames the guild for his misfortune.

The rare ink used is from an animal on the island of Moray, which is part of the Moonshaes. Only a few shops in Waterdeep or Baldur’s Gate carry that ink.

Whoever did this knows at least something about how the guild works, as he knew which guild member would have a key to the mausoleum and portal.

The crime was planned in advanced (theft of the bodies from cemetery in Amn), but because the death of Vogu Sarwin was recent, and because of the age of the tracks (a ten-day ago) it seems as if the death of the late guildmaster was anticipated.

As she hears your report, her brow is furrowed with concentration. At its conclusion, she nods and says, “It looks like you have made some good headway on the source of this event. Apparently, this is not the last we will hear of this necromancer. I would like to commission you to get to the bottom of this, on behalf of my guild. As it is, the funeral can continue without incident. Thank you for all your help. Here is the rest of your fee, and you are welcome to attend the funeral if you would like.”

::OOC::
You each receive enough XP to level up (we will start actually using XP from this point forward).
120 GP and the loot here
Additionaly, you receieve the following story award as well as quest.

Friend of the Furriers
The Solemn Order of Recognized Furriers & Woolmen considers you a friend and ally. They invite you to guild parties and ceremonies and will disclose information on other Waterdhavian guilds.

Quest for the Necromancer
The Solemn Order of Recognized Furriers & Woolmen has charged you with tracking down the necromancer responsible for crimes against the guild.

After being dismissed for being too ambitious and impatient, a human mage named Tieden Prise vowed to prove his master wrong by being accepted into the Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors. To that end, Tieden has embarked on a misguided quest to improve upon magic potions by incorporating alchemy into the Brew Potion ritual.
Eventually he managed to brew a potion that changed common peasants into tough, monstrous warriors, but was unable to solve problems of a short life span and strong odor.
He recently made a connection with an unknown party that lead him to incorporate necromancy into his blend.
Needing a new place he moved to Waterdeep where crowded slums provided plenty of test subjects, and he hired thugs to capture people from the street. Realizing he might draw attention to himself, he thought to deflect suspicion for the disappearances onto a fictitious cult of Shar.
City Watchman Girnan Svann noticed a number of poor people had gone missing from the Dock Ward and became concerned for his unlikely friends and occasional informants. When he reported the disappearances to his rorden (a senior officer), Girnan was told money and manpower were too short to waste on drifters. He began to investigate on his own time but realized he was out of his depth, as he suspected a cult of Shar was involved. Alarmed at how many people were vanishing, he advertised for adventurers to help.

A young lord of a Waterdhavian noble family has become involved with a cell of Dark Followers of Shar in the Downshadow area of Waterdeep (an upper level of Undermountain).
The lord’s teenage male servant carries a light and cleans his master’s boots on the short
trips through the city sewers. The servant was kept away from the meetings with the Sharran worshippers.
However, on the most recent trip, the servant was taken prisoner and planned as a sacrifice in an upcoming ritual. The servant boy does not know the young lord set him up and never witnessed the young lord’s involvement with Shar. The servant boy’s sister is seeking adventurers to find and rescue her brother.
While investigating Downshadow they made contact with Morthos and Grimvok
The party could not reach the boy in time, but they thwarted any future sacrificing by the cult’s by taking over leadership.Lord Korras Anteos has yet to be found and the cult is awaiting their masters next move.

In the Dagger’s Rest, the former tutor of a noble family pleads for help from the PCs in recovering a stolen heirloom. The tutor (now a sage) tells the PCs the family legend regarding the heirloom. The heirloom is a fine quality sextant, not of high intrinsic value, but according to family legend, the family is doomed without the sextant. The sextant belonged to a sea captain who grew a shipping business and was ennobled long ago. The tutor is acting alone, as the family members have been reduced in number and the young heir is a bit adrift. (Many family members have left Waterdeep for their safety.) Many valuables were stolen, but the sextant is considered the most significant to the family. While the theft seems to be simple burglary, the thief was hired by unidentified agents, with the sextant as the main objective.

The thief was found to be a gnome named Orlamm Rivenstone. He gave up the sextant as well as the only information he knew. That we was the bring the sextant, along with a ripped piece of paper, to the Green Tankard Tavern in Loudwater where he would meet a man with the other half.